Dietary Intake of Cadmium and Lead among the General Population in Korea

C. S. Moon, Z. W. Zhang, S. Shimbo, T. Watanabe, D. H. Moon, C. U. Lee, B. K. Lee, K. D. Ahn, S. H. Lee, M. Ikeda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

92 Scopus citations

Abstract

This survey was conducted in Seoul, Pusan, Chunan, and Haman in Korea to clarify cadmium and lead burden in the general Korean populations in terms of dietary intake of cadmium and lead and the concentrations of the two metals in blood. People who participated in the study were 141 healthy nonsmoking women aged 21-56 years. Determination of cadmium and lead in 24-hr food duplicates and blood samples was carried out by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The geometric means for the four sites in combination were 21.2 μg/day for dietary cadmium, 20.5 μg/day for dietary lead, 1.27 ng/ml for blood cadmium, and 44.3 ng/ml for blood lead. Cadmium intake from boiled rice accounted for 23% of total daily cadmium intake. The counterpart value for lead intake from boiled rice was 12%. Blood cadmium levels and dietary cadmium intake were lower and blood lead level and dietary lead intake were higher in Korean women than in Japanese women. The values for dietary cadmium are similar to, and the values for dietary lead are somewhat lower than, the levels reported from Europe and the United States. Dietary intake was the main source of cadmium exposure, whereas lead exposure was from both ambient air and foods in the Korean population.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)46-54
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental research
Volume71
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1995
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • General Environmental Science

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